


The Mournful Flower

by Oliver__Niko



Category: Tales of Berseria, Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Angst and Tragedy, Character Death, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Inspired by Music, Other, Tragedy, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-06
Updated: 2018-09-06
Packaged: 2019-07-07 18:13:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15913596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oliver__Niko/pseuds/Oliver__Niko
Summary: First it had been their father who had no choice but to fight in the war. Their mother, distraught and with no strength left, proceeded to commit suicide.The siblings stay together for as long as possible, planting flowers together every year. But there is only so much time before they will meet the same cruel fate.





	The Mournful Flower

**Author's Note:**

> I was inspired to write this oneshot after listening to SirHamnet's cover of 'Sunflower of Farewell'. I think you can already tell by the tags and summary that this will not be a fun time. Regardless, I hope you enjoy this oneshot!

_Drip. Drip. Drip._

The never-ending rain poured. It streamed down the rooftops and flooded the floor beneath them. Dripping endlessly, continuously, falling down the distraught mother’s face, already soaked in tears. Her eyes were already grieving. Because she had known what would happen ever since she held that paper note within her hands, as red as a rose.

“Please don’t go,” she begged. “Don’t leave us behind.”

But she knew even before she began to speak that her words were futile. There was no choice. As though wishing to not say farewell, her beloved husband did not kiss her, but rather smiled at both her and the children which stood behind her, too young and inexperienced with the world to truly comprehend what was happening.

“I’ll be back,” is what he had said. But he didn’t come back at all.

_Drip. Drip. Drip._

The rain had seemed to never stop, ever since they received the news. Or maybe it was before then, when they knew that the father would be sent to war.

That he was going to die.

The mother wept on the floor all night on the day they had been told. Her crumpled form knelt in front of the photograph of the father’s kind, smiling face. How kind it had always been. But kindness did not excuse you from the cruelness of the world.

And her children, her two beautiful, lost children, stayed with her, yet were unsure of how to comfort her. The elder of the two at least knew how to comfort his younger sister. He placed a hand on her blonde head. No words were spoken, but it was as if it was saying _“I promise I won’t leave you.”_

She believed this, at least during this time. Tears trickled down her own face as she listened to her mother’s despair. Eventually, in a voice void of all emotion, the children were told to get to bed. This voice frightened them. But they still did as they were told.

Together, as always. The brother pulled his sister closer underneath the covers, bringing their bodies together, sharing the body heat which proved that they, at the very least, were still alive. Their racing heartbeats were a sign that they were still here.

Together, shielded from the rain which just won’t stop.

_Drip. Drip. Drip._

Their mother seemed to be sleeping the next morning. The brother did not want to try and wake her, knowing that the ordeal from the day before had likely taken its toll. But the sister, after losing her father, needed to hear her mother’s voice again. The brother did not argue. Secretly, he had only been holding himself back from doing the same out of a pretence of strength.

Although the sight of their mother was traumatising. Coughed up blood staining her nightdress and trickling down her chin, her lifeless hand hanging down from the bed. Several feet away laid an empty bottle of pills.

Screaming. Sobbing. And that taunting, never-ending rain.

_Drip. Drip. Drip._

It had been gruelling, losing their mother as well as their father, all in such a short space of time. But in this era, this was all too common. In fact, they were luckier than some, able to be adopted by their aunt instead. Not many children could say the same. What a cruel, twisted world it had been, to know that this event was seen as _normal._ That the husband’s murder on the battlefield, the mother’s suicide, it was _normal._

“I promise I’ll stay with you,” said the brother as the two siblings struggled to sleep in their new home. “I promise.”

Only he knew that if this war did not end, it would be his turn to be dealt this fate in a matter of years. He swore to himself that in these years he had remaining by his sister’s side, he would give her the happiness she deserved.

He would bring a temporary stop to the relentless rain.

 

* * *

 

It was a serene day. With the sun shining down and smiles all around, it had been impossible to tell that cruelties were happening in this world. On days like this, it was even possible to forget the traumatic events of the past.

The blonde-haired girl turned at the sound of footsteps behind her. She smiled as she looked up, her hand holding onto a leaf which delicate care. It is attached to the stem of a sunflower. She had always loved those beautiful flowers, their bright petals illuminated in the sunshine. Although to her brother, she was the most exquisite flower around.

“Hey, Eizen,” she greeted. “The sunflowers have grown well this year.”

He smiled back, crouching next to her. “You really do love flowers, don’t you Edna?”

“And who was the one who got me into the habit of doing this every year?”

Eizen let out a laugh, placing his hand down onto her head. “You have a point. But it does say a lot if you’ve kept it up all this time.”

It had been the same every year. To help her with the trauma of her parents’ deaths, Eizen encouraged her to form this hobby, sowing seeds every spring in order for her to learn about life. Sunflowers had soon turned out to be a favourite.

Although there was no denying that she had grown rather attached to these days with Eizen. It was going to be hard to let go on the day which would eventually arrive.

Ignoring this, Eizen leaned down to place a kiss on her head as she reminisced over all of the years they had spent here together.

A single drop of rain landed on her face.

“Eizen, will …”

His heart skipped a beat, certain of what Edna would say even just from those two words. “Will I what?”

“Will you have to leave too, before long?”

Eizen inhaled sharply, blue eyes closing. “I think so. That’s why I want you to promise me something, Edna.”

“What is it?” she asked quietly, unable to bear looking back at him, instead staring at the sunflower she held on to.

“I want you to keep planting these sunflowers every year. Just like you’ve always done.”

She too closed her eyes for a moment. Her frail heart found itself reaching out for this past. A past where she, even after how much she suffered, at least did not worry so much for the future. Where the two would laugh together out in the sun. Where he would teach her how to sow these seeds, pluck a single flower to match with her name and tuck it behind those beauteous strands of blonde hair.

Where two broken souls could find solace in each other.

“I will,” she promised quietly, finally able to look back at the eyes which matched her own.

 _Drip._ A few more drops of rain fell onto the sunflower.

 

* * *

 

Grey clouds overlapped each other in the morning sky. By now, the two siblings already lived alone. They would never not be grateful for the help given to them by their aunt. But there were far too many similarities between her and her late sister. As much as Edna and Eizen tried to look past this, it was much too difficult. She made them far too retentive of their past.

Although this step forward in life perhaps caused more pain than staying would. Because it was a sign that time was passing them by far, far too quickly.

The solider arrived all too soon, crimson note in hand. Edna only managed to compose herself long enough for the unsmiling man to bow his head and leave. Her trembling, weak hand held onto the note, her eyes staring at it in horror.

And then, with her heart broken, she collapsed to the floor amidst the pouring rain, howling as though in agony as she held the note to her chest.

_Drip. Drip. Drip._

“Edna,” Eizen whispered as he watched from a distance, dropping the umbrella held in his hands as he ran over to her. His arms, always so strong, always protective, wrapped around her trembling body. “Please, don’t cry. I’m right here.”

“Y-You … you can’t go,” Edna gasped out in between her broken sobs. It was too painful to say anything more, to do nothing but let herself be held by her brother, the only person she had left. A kiss was planted on her head before Eizen moved back from her, cupping the face drenched by rain and tears alike.

“I have to, Edna,” Eizen said softly, his thumbs circling her cheeks. “As long as there’s still a tomorrow to protect, I’ll gladly face it.” He leaned forward, placing another kiss onto her forehead, closing his eyes as he fought back his own tears. “For the sake of both our futures.”

She shook her head. Brave words of false hope were not what she needed to hear. “You can’t leave me here all alone!” she cried out, her hands grasping onto his shirt tightly. Her head fell against it, sobbing uncontrollably. “What future is there to protect if you’re not here with me? I’ve got no reason to live if you’re not there!”

“Edna –”

“Any tomorrow without you, I don’t want it,” she whispered, her grip loosening. “You can’t leave me behind. P-Please, I …”

She collapsed against him, weakened by her convulsive sobs. _Drip,_ as the rain wouldn’t stop pouring, _drip,_ as she lost the only one who could wipe its relentless torrent away.

She cried, watching as her single ray of sunshine, her only reason to live, was taken from her by the country he swore to protect.

 

* * *

 

Their remaining time together was cruelly cut far too short. And with the knowledge of what was to come, these days could not be enjoyed regardless.

Neither would ever be able to forget the fear that consumed them the day before. They could not even say a word to one another, despite how many brave, admirable words Eizen had given to her already. As he stood outside, carefully holding onto the sunflowers’ leaves in the unfitting sunshine, holding back tears as he held the plant to his face, Edna too stopped her own tears as she clutched Eizen’s uniform tightly against her chest.

And before they knew it, they stood at the station, the whistle piercing their ears as an indication that their time to say goodbye had finally arrived.

“No parting gift?” Eizen asked with a touch of a teasing tone, waiting for his moment to step onto the train that would take him away. Edna shook her head.

“Not this time. It’s not goodbye, after all.”

_Drip. Drip. Drip._

Eizen stepped forward when it was finally the right moment. Edna watched this, her teeth biting down onto her lip. And then, already filled with desolation, a frail hand reached out and seized his sleeve in desperation.

“You don’t have to go,” she whispered as tears fell from the corners of her eyes.

Eizen smiled painfully. He took hold of the hand which latched onto him, bringing it up to his lips to place a kiss onto its palm.

“You have to let go,” he said. Edna knew that he was referring to far more than merely her hand. “There’s still so much of the world you have yet to see. This hand has to reach for that instead.”

Her hand fell down to her side as he cupped her face instead. She could see that tears glistened in Eizen’s own eyes, yet he would not allow them to fall.

“Please stop crying,” he then said softly. “I want to be sent off by a smile as radiant as the sun.”

Edna’s head lowered, her teeth biting onto her bottom lip as she did all she could to fight her tears away, yet she could not manage even this.

“Don’t die,” she whispered. “I’ll be waiting for you.”

She could not bear for this to be goodbye, but as the rain continued to pour as relentlessly as ever, she knew that thinking it could be otherwise was only a pretence of hope.

 

* * *

 

 

Eizen could never be sent off with the radiant smile he wanted.

His funeral had been much too devastating and soul-crushing to smile once. Even the flowers left for him did not spark Edna’s usual adoration of them. After all, he had been the reason she loved those flowers at all. Without him there, her love felt empty. Her heart was the same.

Even the sunflowers, drenched in the never-ending rain, died eventually. She could not keep that promise. The only sunflowers which remained are the ones held in her arms as she walked to his grave.

Her clothes were black, her hair loose and soaked through by the rain. It felt as though she grew weaker with each passing step. She hated herself for that.

 _Drip._ Eizen is no longer here to fight off the never-ending rain. It had always been him who smiled as radiant as the forgotten sun, not Edna. He never realised that.

“The war is expected to end soon, Eizen,” Edna said in front of his grave, her voice barely above a whisper. “You really did fight to protect tomorrow.”

She knelt down in front of the marble grave, gleaming and slippery from the rain. The grave of someone who died at just eighteen. The sunflowers were placed in front of it. These were the last ones that Edna would ever grow.

“I’m sorry, Eizen. I know you wanted me to reach for the future. But you were the only one I ever fought for. I never really thanked you for all you did for me. You … you changed everything. I just don’t know how to live without you there.”

She ran her hand across the grave. Her eyes were exhausted and tired; they no longer had any tears nor strength. Alike to her late mother; emotionless and an empty vessel with no soul. That had already been destroyed when she received the second bout of awful news.

“ _Your brother has died. I’m sorry.”_

It seemed as though this was the only fate for broken families like theirs. Perhaps it was because this cruel world was not for them; instead, they were to reunite in the afterlife, where their happiness would truly come to life. She smiled for the first time in a time she could not tell. That is where she belonged.

A hand reached for the bottle of pills which rested in her pocket. It seemed the most fitting, to die with the only one she ever lived for.

_Drip. Drip. Drip._

That is the sound of not only the endless rain, but the blood shed by the wickedness of war.


End file.
